


Tokyo Days

by linkzeldi



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: F/M, Mafia AU, They're on an island off the east coast of america called the wards, it's about 1925
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-25
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-07-26 14:14:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7577239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/linkzeldi/pseuds/linkzeldi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A brief intro into a hypothetical mafia AU based off of the plot of 91 days.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tokyo Days

It was a beautiful day outside in the wards. 

  


Too bad he could barely see it, Hide thought wistfully as he squinted through his bruised left eye. His face was blackened and blue, beat up it was the worst, really. Still as he walked with his suitcase at his side he at least tried to whistle and keep his high spirits up. There was still a lot of things to appreciate, they called this the prohibition era, that meant Hide was literally living history right now.

  


Maybe somebody would write a book about his life. He hoped it would be a girl, a cute one. 

  


He turned the corner, and looked up at his low rent apartment with a sigh. Whether it was out of fondness, or exasperation, he would leave up to interpretation in his future novel of course. Just then he felt a tiny tug at his sleeve. Whatever he had been feeling then, his face became a smile as he looked down at the child to his side. 

  


“What’s the haps?” He said, reaching out to rustle the kid’s hair. He stopped though, when he noticed the kid flinch away somewhat, looking back at his apartment instead of at Hide. Hide’s smile froze. 

  


“The other kids are telling me, that a ghost has been walking around your apartment,” The kid said, and Hide put his hand on top of their head, and he could feel them shaking. 

  


“Ooooh? What kind of ghost?” He said, leaning in with interest and a catlike grin.

  


The kid’s fear did not seem to be broken though, “Not like a spirit- l-like a man whose come back from the dead.” The kid slipped out of Hide’s grip and ran away, shouting back at him as they did. “Don’t you become a ghost now too, Nagachika!”

  


Hide let his arm fall. Now as they both hung at his sides, they felt empty in this moment. “A ghost, huh?”

  


**December 21st, 1908**

  


Normally, kids with birthdays near Christmas were cursed with celebrating the two holidays as one, but Kaneki was blessed with a mother who worked two jobs to secure his happiness, so he knew he would be getting cake on Christmas, as well as today. 

  


Kaneki also tended to be cursed with misfortune, as he only had one friend, and one sister to share his birthday party with. He was not the most outgoing person, in fact even at his own party he had been silently watching Hide and Hinami have fun, until Hide slid a book in front of his face. 

  
It was a story he knew well, about a boy king, a witch, and a witch’s servant. Even though the three were enemies at first, like most fairy tales they learned to get along at the end. “Hold onto this torch for me, forevermore,” Kaneki read smoothly and confidently, despite being only seven years old at the time. This was his favorite scene and he had asked his mother about all the difficult Kanji and read it several times over. The scene where the witch’s servant apologizes to the young king for pretending to be his friend. Even if it was fake, it still meant something to him in the end. 

  


Kaneki wanted to be able to believe in people, like the young king could. People who lived for love like the Witch’s servant, or people who lived for revolution like the Witch. Both were good in his eyes.

  


Hide must have been watching his eyes, because he interrupted the reading right there by putting his plump fingers over the pages. Kaneki looked up in confusion. “Hey, I wanna do what they did, you know with the torch?” Hide must have noticed, he always noticed. 

  


Kaneki blinked. “I’m sorry Hide, but we don’t have a torch.”” He answered politely.

  


“I know that, don’t you have any creativity at all? What are you an, ‘only a reader, never a writer’ type.” Hide snapped, and Kaneki giggled softly because even as a child Hide managed to say lots of strange things.

  


“We could use a candle,” Hinami piped up. When she had been quietly listening in Kaneki’s lap.

  
“A candle! A candle see! You need to keep her safe because she’s a thousand times smarter than you,” Hide was already feeling energetic so late at night. Kaneki thought the story might have calmed him.

  
“I know that already,”  However, he sighed in a patient way and scooted out from underneath Hinami, hearing her slight ‘oh’ when she hit the floor again. He walked over to the cabinet, pulling a chair behind him and stood up on it. 

  


In a moment he had retrieved a pair of matches, and a candle. Imitating the way he had seen his mother do it, he lit the candle by striking the match first. All three children stared at the flame with intensity. Hide was the closest to it. He wanted to be the first one to imitate the scene where the witch’s servant was able to pass his hand through the flame without burning. 

  


“You should be able to grab the wick, because I’ve read it’s not the wick that burns but the candle itself.”

  


“Sssh, geek, I’m concentrating,” Hide said staring intently at the flame. All at once he snatched out, and  when his hand returned after contact with the flame, he was holding a small piece of the wick between his thumb and pointer finger. 

  


Kaneki, immediately feeling awe for how brave Hide had been reached his hand out too. He stopped just short of the flame and hovered, though. His face became more and more timid, shaking, until he withdrew his hand quickly rubbing the palm. “How did you even do that, Hide?”

  


“It’s easy, you just have to not think about the pain,” Hide said smiling. 

  


Before Hinami could even ask to try, she was interrupted by the bell ringing. That meant it was time for Hide to go home, both waved him off at the doorstep. He looked back to them smiling as long as he could, before he nearly tripped, and then he turned around. 

  


Hinami and Kaneki were left alone in a home with only a half eaten cake. When he noticed Hinami’s shoulders slump, Kaneki piped up to reassure her, “H-hey you know what, I know a game we can play to get revenge for mom working so late.”

  
In a moment the two of them were quietly huddled up in the closet. It was a small prank, mom would find them because they could barely contain their giggles, she would pat them on the heads, and all three of them would laugh together. Then they could enjoy cake. Both Hinami and mom would be satisfied, and as for Kaneki he never minded that she worked late on his birthday in the first place, as long as she was happy.

  
Sure enough, he heard the sound of a door creaking open a few minutes later. “Ken? Hinami?” Her voice called out. When she heard no response, there was a gasp. He heard the sounds of her cleaning up, the candle he had left on the ground, and putting the book back away on the shelf where his father’s books were kept. Their giggles rose above that noise though, and he heard his mother’s footsteps turn around to approach the door. 

  


Until another sound interrupted them. The sound of a car that had been tailing her finally pulled into the driveway. Three men stepped out, all in suits. Two wore white suits, while the third was pitch black. He stood in the middle, he was the oldest of the three of them but still young looking. His eyes were closed and his hair slicked back tight, a dark and oily black. He removed his hat when he walked in, and he was the only one who did.

  


The next, the more slender of the two had white, short hair, that fell jaggedly around his face. The only color on his suit was a red time, and it matched the color of his eyes.

  


The more bulky of the three men also wore a white suit, but his tie and collared shirt were both black. His hair was black too and slicked back, but unevenly unlike the first man. He walked with an odd gate, his hands in his pockets. From the way his eyes were a little too far apart and bulged slightly, he looked like a lizard to Kaneki who watched from the distance. 

  


“K-kuzen, Sir. I thought it was okay for me to take off today, remember I told you about my son’s birthday,” She said, the fear in her voice barely contained.

  
Kuzen kept his hat to his chest, and opened his eyes just a bit to level them at her. They were a dark green, a color Kaneki could never forget. “We’re not here about that, Ma’am.”

  


As civil as Kuzen attempted to be, two guns immediately clicked. His mom looked at both of them, and back to Kuzen with pleading eyes. Before he could even open his mouth, the bulkier one had his gun in her cheek. “Where’s the notebook? You know where it is, so quit the innocent maid routine and spill.”

  


“Notebook? I don’t- I can’t.”

  


“Yamori, that’s unnecessary,” Kuzen started. Before he could intervene though, there was a pale white and ice cold hand on his shoulder. 

  


“Let the idiot do as he pleases, it’s less of a pain than trying to calm him down.”   
  
“But he-”

  
“Us rotten dogs pretending to be good, is what got us into this situation.” He let go. 

  


Kuzen put his hat back on. He slowly pulled a third gun, and spoke as he did so. “V was very clear with us, whoever you’re trying to protect by hiding that notebook, if it’s not retrieved they’ll come down hard and more than your little family will suffer because of it.”

  


“It’s still hidden at the base, I know where every nook and cranny is, because you were so kind to hire me Kuzen. Please, let’s just leave and go back there, I’ll show you where it is. We just need to-” She was trying to back away from Yamori. He caught her hard, this time grabbing her neck by his big hands.

  


“Nice try, we already tore the base apart. If you’re trying to delay us so you can run away or flag down the police on the trip there, it won’t work. Now come on already, the old man laid it out for you, choose! Your family, or the person you’re trying to protect.”

  


Miss Kaneki hesitated. 

  


Kaneki was reminded that he existed in this situation, and was not merely watching it, by the fact that Hinami was now shivering against him. There was no way his mother would not choose their family. Kaneki wanted to speak those words but he knew he had to stay quiet. When they heard a crash outside, and their mother’s scream though, it was Hinami who acted first. She pushed herself away from Kaneki, and burst through the door. 

  


Kaneki was only seven, but he had already read through the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. When thinking back on this situation, he would often put it in the terms of that book. The wardrobe and the hallway which led to the kitchen felt like different worlds. Hinami left his world, and left him alone then, and all he could do was uselessly reach after her shadow. 

  


Hinami grabbed onto Yamori’s legs and begged him to stop. Only to be smacked down by Hinami. Miss Kaneki who was already on the floor, found she had yet to experience every fear she could in this moment, and her voice called out in wordless agony. She found words though, as she prostrated herself and began to beg, “Please, she’s just a child. Just take me, she’ll forget about this, she’ll forget.”

  


Yamori grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her up eye level, his hand consuming all of her head. “You know she won’t,” His face became thoughtful though. A sadistic smirk spread across it. “I wanna see it though, that resolve that chose the diary’s author over your own children, make a choice. Choose one to die, and I’ll let the other live.   
  
“What?” She gasped, breathless. 

  


“Which one is it going to be? This one right? She’s not your natural born child, and beacuse of her you had to start working for such a horrible place as the mafia.”

  
Miss Kaneki wrestled free from his grip in her last burst of strength, then shook her head slowly. “Kill me instead, and let them both live please.”

  
Yamori watched her. Then nodded solemnly. “I understand,” He said. Then turned around and shot Hinami straight in the neck before anybody realized his intention. She fell backwards, and Kaneki saw from her head, there was blossoming red flowers. She looked like a cloth doll who the sewing came apart around the neck, leaking stuffing onto the ground. He couldn’t see her. He couldn’t see Hinami in that body anymore. 

  


His mother fell to the ground and sobbed. She felt a gun click, and a cold muzzle press against the back of her head. “You’re evil,” She muttered staring forward.

  


“I already I know that I’m evil, since I was born all I’ve done was take from others,” He pulled the trigger without any hesitation. The only member present that reacted was the white haired man, who narrowed his red eyes then looked away. Kuzen picked from his pocket a cloth, and began to clean the barrel of his gun casually. 

  


“Yamori, since you made a mess, you call the cleaners. Tell them that if they find the kid to do what’s necessary,” He pulled black gloves out of his pockets, and pulled them tight over his hands. Yamori nodded to him as he left. Then went outside to smoke and wait.

  


Kaneki stumbled out of the closet. He went to Hinamis body first, and touched her neck as if he could fix it. Then his face. He felt wetness drip down it. That’s right, he was touching blood. Hinami’s blood. Splattered all over the place. Kaneki got to his feet, and stumbled forward. He had only encountered death once before in his life, the early passing of his father three years ago when he was four years old. He dragged his feet in a zombie like walk until he found his father’s book case. His hands searched until he found his favorite, the newest book on the shelf, Dear Kafka. He pulled it open even though he knew those hands would stain the pages. 

  


‘Then I, hidden from everyone, (particularly father) stealthily rewrote the outline. Things that can not be changed, can only be broken. From the view of I who left all things needed in the womb.’   
  
His sister and mother were dead, there was no changing that. Kaneki had only wanted, one last look at his favorite book before he died, but now he felt a particular inspiration from that line, that there was still something left that could be done with his life. That he could live. 

  


He exited out the back door, and broke into a run knowing if he looked back once, he would stop, and die. Yamori noticed him when he tripped over a log and caused a noise in the brush behind their house. He chased after but Kaneki had the head start. He felt like he was fleeing from a monster. If he framed it in that way, maybe he could be like a hero from a story book and get away. The next log he jumped over. He struggled to climb the fence, hearing Yamori’s breathing right behind him. By the time Yamori reached the fence, Kaneki had fallen and disappeared into the woods. 

  


Hours later in the night, Hide was awoken by a polite knock at his door. When he pried it open he saw on the other side, an out of breath Kaneki waiting for him, face covered in blood and clutching a book to his chest that was in the same condition. Whatever smart remark Hide was about to make about Kaneki visiting him this late at night, died in his throat. 

  


The two of them ended up in the same bed together, as Kaneki begged Hide not to tell his parents. They could shower in the morning, and figure something out from there, Hide told himself. As they laid in the bed together, Kaneki’s back turned away, he heard something.

  
“Speak up, you need to stop mumbling all the time…” Hide said, even though he knew it wasn’t appropriate.

  
“I’m sorry, I might have led them here.”

  


“Even if you did, it wouldn’t be your fault,” He reached out a lone finger to poke Kaneki’s spine. Kaneki relinquished one of his arms, and Hide wrapped his hand around Kaneki’s. If he could fall asleep like this, Kaneki would have no choice but to stay until morning.

  


The last thing Hide heard before he lost consciousness was, “From now on we’re brothers.”

  


Fourteen years in the future, Hide looked at his own empty hand right before the door. Then he opened it. On the other side Kaneki was waiting for him, like fourteen years hadn’t passed at all. 

  


He was older of course, his hair had grown longer to the point that it was well past his ears and almost drooping down to his shoulders at some tips. Instead of the light brown he remembered, it had become a dark black. It seemed black was his color now, as he wore a long black coat over his collared shirt (which was also black). His face was the same though, that all too serious expression he wore. 

  


“Ohhh? Is this the part where you say I’ve been expecting you?” Hide said, immediately jumping to one of the jokes he thought up.

  


Kaneki blinked, and then looked at Hide’s face, “Ahhh, Hide, your eye? Are you alright?”

  


Yes it was, the same old Kaneki. 

  
“I’m fine. Right now I finally know what the phrase, ‘a sight for sore eyes’ means,” He said still smiling. 

  
“Are you sure you don’t want to get an eyepatch or something while it heals?” 

  


Definitely the same old Kaneki.

  


“Nah, I don’t feel like styling it up like you are right now,” Hide said, pointing finger guns at Kaneki’s outfit. Something Hide thought he would never have the confidence to wear. Surprisingly, Kaneki did not shift self consciously now that attention was brought to him, as he had expected. He merely tilted his head and smiled softly.

  


“I see. Who gave you a mark like that, though?”

  


“Who else? The mafia got mad because I wouldn’t sell them any of my booze.” Hide said, and also unexpected, Kaneki did not wince like he once did whenever the mafia was brought up.

  


Kaneki parted his lips in a slight affirmation, a quiet ah, before turning back to the only significant feature in Hide’s one room apartment. His distillery. A machine made of a pale gold that contained all sorts of pipes and nozzles, that was continually dripping into an open cup. “That’s a good setup you have,” Kaneki commented on it neutrally.

  
“Oy, oy! It’s not like that, I’m just selling enough money to get to university.” Hide said defensively as he waved his hands up in the air behind Kaneki. 

  
Kaneki did not even look back as he commented, “How is it selling, then?”

  


“Not well at all.”

  
Hide and Kaneki together, had once promised to go to university together. Kaneki said he was going to study literature, while Hide said he wanted to study cute girls. That memory hung in the air, like an unspoken promise between the two of them. As good as Hide was at observing Kaneki though, he had no idea why he could possibly here, and he was not about to cling to something as flimsy and romantic as a childhood friend.

  


As his literature loving friend would even say, the age of romanticism was over. 

  


Hide wanted to ask, but he knew it would be a bad idea. 

  


Kaneki however, always blurted out whatever he was thinking in such an awkward way. “Do you mind if I stay here for a few days, it shouldn’t be long, less than one quarter of a year for sure.”

  


Hide had no idea why so specific of an amount, but he looked down and observed Kaneki was carrying no bags. Just like that night, all he carried on him was a book he clutched in his left hand. Though the blood on its cover had long since soaked into the pages and dried. “That’s fine,” Hide said. 

  


Kaneki finally looked back to him, “Good. Then, to make up for troubling you, I know how we’re going to sell that booze of yours.”

  


Hide’s eyebrows raised, he should not have been surprised at his friend from fourteen years ago, but for some reason, he could only keep reacting in repeated successions of surprises, “Oh, how is that?”

  


“We’re going to sell it to the Mafia.”

  
Hide laughed. There he was, getting surprised again. 

  


He saw Kaneki about to leave, still holding that book in his hands. “You can put that down you know,” Hide reminded him. Kaneki looked to the book, and then to Hide, and did so, but the action looked almost reluctant. 

  


They went to the :Re because that was the only speak easy that Hide had not been run out of yet. He told Kaneki that the bartender was a cute girl, and they might even run into more cute girls while they were there, but Kaneki did not seem to fluster that much. Hide’s good mood paled slightly though, when he saw nothing more than a few drunk men at the edges of the bar, and two men already occupying the time of the cute bartender. This was supposed to be the roaring twenties, but the scene before him resembled more a lion with his scratchy throat, coughing after the end of the roar. 

  


Kaneki walked ahead unperturbed. The two of them standing, waited at the edge of the bartender’s conversation. 

  


“Oy, oy! This liquor is so good if you shake it you can see the gold shavings in the liquid come on,” The smaller of the two figures by a great deal said, he was thin, but there was a bounciness to his appearance. As he did not quite make five feet he must have been trying to hop up and make the difference. When he bounced, his messy green bangs bounced with him, and even though like this his hair obscured most of his face, Kaneki could tell already that they must have had a face filled with personality. 

  


The bartender was somebody much more aloof though, she had just finished tying her apron and now hands free she slammed them on the counter separating them, “I don’t care if you’re selling me literal melted down liquid gold, I’m not going to buy stolen goods.”She blew on the blue hair that was brushed over her eyes, a sigh of annoyance to punctuate her statement. 

  


“Seems like the game is up,” The white haired man, much taller than his partner said, closing his red eyes. 

  


“What do you mean stolen goods? The second you began working with the mafia you must have known everything they sell is taken. Don’t pretend to have some sense of honor,” Kaneki tilted his head slightly, it seemed the brightness of his personality was just hiding steel. 

  


“I’m not pretending to have honor, I’m having common sense, the quality you lack,” The bartender parried her perfectly. 

  


“Can you just pretend though? Because I really need to sell this booze, I need money to buy F. Scott Fitzgerald’s new book, I hear it’s something incredible,” He started to fast talk again, flipping back to his bubbliness. 

  


Behind him, his companion opened his eye just a crack, “You shouldn’t bother getting on your hands and knees, Sen.”

  
“Some things are worth getting on your hands and knees for, Tatara.”

  


“I’m sure that’s what you’re going to use the money for,” the bartender sighed again, and then finally noticed with her uncovered eye, the two others standing at the bar. “Hide, what are you doing back around these parts?”

  


“Didn’t you miss me, Touka?” Hide said happily. 

  


Touka stared at him flatly. Then looked over to Kaneki who was standing next to him, holding a black suitcase.

  
“Oh? Handsome isn’t he? Or do you just think he looks ridiculous dressing so darkly? This here fellow’s name is-”

  


“Haise Sasaki,” Kaneki raised his voice to introduce himself. The list of strange new changes to Kaneki, only grew to now include his name. 

  
Kaneki took a step forward all on his own to offer his hand to the bartender. Then did not seem flustered at all when she narrowed her eyes at his open hand, but refuse to take it. Instead he merely gave a small smile, “You should listen to Sen more, The Great Gatsby is a fine book, the real crime would be not reading it.”

  


Touka rolled her eyes, “You can’t judge somebody on their taste in literature.”

  
“Oh, but you can.”   
“Oh, but you can-”   
  
The two said at the same time, and then looked at one another. Kaneki saw his face for the first time, and found it to be oddly slender looking especially around the curve of his cheeks, and he watched the face slowly turn from shock, to a tiny smile, and thought that expression was beautiful. Then her expression changed suddenly, and she smiled wide enough to show teeth, and Kaneki instantly took a step back like he sensed danger. 

  


She took his open hand though and shook it, preventing him from backing away fully. “It’s good to meet a fellow Gatsby man, be careful with this bartender she’s a bit stingy.”

  


“I can hear you,” Touka said from behind them. 

  


“I didn’t mean that in a mean way,” Sen continued, his words like the fizz rising to the surface on freshly poured liquor, “Somebody who sneers at people selling illegal booze, while enjoying that same booze, is really interesting don’t you think? Prohibition as a whole is a terrible idea, but a wonderful metaphor.”

  


“I’m not sure what to say to that,” Kaneki said honestly, and then averted his eyes slightly, “But if you wanted Gatsby, I can just lend you the book.” Kaneki felt punctured by his sharpness, and let his hands slip from his fingertips slowly, almost intimately. He quickly though turned his attention away and to the bar, “Touka- er, Miss Touka. If you would, Hide brought his booze today to sell-”

  


“No thank you,” Touka said putting a hand up immediately. 

  
Sen laughed. 

  


“Unlike me this is a nice guy right here,” Sen said as he clasped his shoulder, and Kaneki felt a softness pressing against him with his closeness, “You should really give him a chance, Touka.”

  
“It’s precisely because he’s a nice guy that I’m not getting him involved in this, Hide it’s as I said before, go away and don’t get involved in this dangerous business.” She shooed him away like she was trying to feather dust the air with her free hand. 

  


“Stingy, definitely stingy-” Sen said, but he was giggling again. He pulled and turned Kaneki around to face him. “Don’t worry though, I’m not going to turn away somebody so kind as yourself,” Kaneki felt an edge to the word ‘kind’ almost as if he were being mocked for it. He went along with it though, and opened the suitcase on the bar in front of Sen. He pulled out the single glass bottle he had brought as a sample, and unscrewed the top. Taking one of the free glasses Touka had left on the bar, turning it over and offering it to Sen. 

  


He took a sip, seemed to mull it over for a moment, and for some reason Kaneki found himself thinking about his tongue, before he tipped the glass all the way up and swallowed it whole. “Oh…” he said simply. Kaneki’s eyes fell a little, he was expecting a more wordy reaction. 

  


He pulled Tatara suddenly forward by his red tie, and pointed at the glass bottle. “Go on.”

  


He nodded his head obediently.  Though he drank it slower. “You’re right, this is a unique flavor.” He said, getting to the point faster.    
  
“Since you agree, oy, oy, kid! Let me buy your liquor instead,  I’ll find somewhere else to sell it.” He said, and suddenly Kaneki found himself being tugged around again. Touka’s disinterest in him too, seemed to evaporate as she poured her own drink. 

  


Everything seemed to be going well for once.

  


Then their pleasant atmosphere was shattered, as well as a few glass bottles with the sound of bullets firing. 

  
“Where’s Eto Yoshimura!”

  
A delinquent looking young man with purple hair drawn back in an elegant style, wearing a bright purple suit stepped into the establishment, flanked on both sides by a man and a woman both in black suits. All three of them were armed, and the purple man was particularly trigger happy. 

  


“ Lā shǐ, it’s a rose,” Tatara said as he stepped protectively in front of Sen, but Sen batted him off with his forearm. He seemed undisturbed by this new development. 

  
Meanwhile Hide had already jumped to hide behind Kaneki, and Kaneki simply watched quietly staring ahead. 

“Borgs! All of you! Now listen, I was told Eto Yoshimura had made an escape to this bar. I don’t mind killing every one of you in order to confirm their death, so step forward.”

  


A few drops of alcohol fell onto the floor from the shattered wine bottles, but otherwise nobody made a sound. Touka leaned forward from her bar, “You really think you can start up a fight, the 20th ward is neutral territory-” A gun being clicked in her direction stopped her. 

  
Then before the situation could escalate any further. Kaneki stepped forward. He felt his arm being grabbed again, Sen really was, a touchy kind of person. “You’re really kind you know that, don’t let it get you too hurt,” he whispered to him. 

  


“I can handle myself,” He said, brushing him off. Then to the purple haired gunman, “I’m Eto Yoshimura.”

  
“Servus! Pleasure to meet you, I’m Kanae von Rosewald.” He closed the distance between them, and began to brush his gun against Kaneki’s face, as if he were tenderly holding a rose.

  
“Why are you introducing yourself?” Kaneki asked, deadpan.

  


“It’s only manners to introduce yourself to the person you’re going to kill,” Kanae responded. 

  


Kaneki flicked his sleeve, and a knife fell down it. Before Kanae could respond Kaneki sharply moved forward elbowing their gun hand up into the air, and then bringing the knife to their neck, pressing the cold steel edge against it. “I can cut faster than you can pull the trigger.”   
  
Kanae at his sudden action, seemed more bemused than anything. He straightened his gun holding hand once more, “I wonder about that,” Then leaned in, “You don’t look like you’ve ever taken a life, boy.”

  
Kaneki tried to press further, but his hands went cold, and then they went numb. It was like the time he had tried to hold his hand over the candle flame to grab the wick. Just don’t think about the pain of taking another human life, he told himself. 

  


Kanae had already clicked the gun against his chest though, it was too late. Just then appeared in Kaneki’s view, Sen flying through the air like a bird, to deliver a flying kick to Kanae’s face, and send the shot wild. Kaneki panicked, and held his arms out to catch him, pulling him close to his chest and following Touka’s urgent gesturing for everybody remaining to jump behind the bar. He stood still for a second, holding Sen there. Until Hide grabbed him by the neck and dragged him into taking his first step. 

  


Kanae having lost his temper, unloaded rounds of their tommy gun into the bar. Touka laughed underneath her breath, “You think I’d let the mafia in here without reinforcing the bar.”   
  
“So we’re safe until he thinks of just walking over here and pointing his gun downwards,” Tatara commented drily.

  


“Even if we run out the back we walked here so we won’t be able to get away fast,” Hide reminded them, well mostly Kaneki, because he was the one who nervously tugged on the sleeve of his black coat. 

  
“Good thing Tatara is a great driver, and an even better thief!” Sen gushed, happily tugging on the sleeve of their compatriot. “Isn’t he just the bees knees?”

  


Tatara grumbled slightly.

  


“We’ll need a distraction then,” Kaneki assessed once the facts had been pulled together.    
  
Just then, Sen said, “Why are you so upset, little Kanae? Are you really that mad over a little bit of stolen booze, or are you trying to show the strength of Rose even when the Don’s son isn’t doing so well?”

  


That  attracted about thirty seconds of continuous fire on the bar, causing a few bullets to even whiz past them as they slowly began to break through the reinforcement. After it stopped Sen said in a much quieter voice, “He seems easy to distract.”

  


Kaneki stared at the alcohol that was leaking onto the floor. He quickly risked his hand to grab the bottle that was still mostly full. “Hey Hide, you remember right?” He shook the bottle for a moment as he gesstured with it, “It’s not the wick that burns but the material around it.”

  


The next few moments went by felt like a lifetime, as Sen and Tatara both watched the door, and Hide and Kaneki together, reclaimed the few intact bottles. Then they switched and Hide and Tatara began to watch the door, while Kaneki removed his sock and began to stuff it into the vodka bottle they found. He pulled out a lighter and waited.    
  
Sen popped up over the shelf, and threw a few more bottles at Kanae. Then smiled, “If you’re here, then whose tucking the Don’s son into bed at night,” That set him off enough, to fire even when he was covered in alcohol. His suit instantly ignited itself. Hide and Tatara bolted for the door. Sen and Kaneki ran together too, but just to be sure Kaneki lingered for a moment to light his molotov and throw it at Kanae. As he saw the flames blossom like orange flowers, he had to be pulled away from the sight by Sen tugging his arm forward again.

  


Tatara already had the car started, and was leaving without them with Hide hanging out the back seat. With few options left, Kaneki and Sen both climbed and held onto the back of the car at  the same time. 

  
Kanae in his charred suit stumbled after them, hanging out of the doorway. “I’ll kill you, anyone…. Anyone who insults master Shuu… I’ll kill…. Yoshimura Eto.”

  


Just then, Sen pulled his hat off to throw it at Kanae, revealing a much longer mop of green hair that whipped dramatically in the win. “If you’re looking for Yoshimura Eto, she’s right here idiot!”

  


In that moment Kaneki realized that instead of an oddly beautiful man, Sen had been a woman in disguise the entire time.

  
No, not only a woman he found beautiful, but the daughter of the man he had come to this town to kill. His eyes widened slightly. Why was it that beautiful things were always so closely intertwined with death?


End file.
